For the second year in a row, President Trump and first lady Melania Trump will not be at the Kennedy Center Honors gala, which will be held Dec. 2 in the Opera House.

Melania Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said Tuesday that “at this time” the couple are not planning to attend the annual fundraiser. The 2018 Honors will salute the lifetime achievements of four artists — composer Philip Glass, singer-actresses Cher and Reba McEntire, and jazz musician Wayne Shorter — as well as the creative team behind the groundbreaking musical “Hamilton.”

The Kennedy Center declined to comment.

Last year, the Trumps announced in August that they would skip the December gala, a highlight of the Washington social calendar, after several recipients said they would not attend a White House reception hosted by the president.

Presidents have no say in the choice of honorees — they are selected by a Kennedy Center committee from nominations by the public and past winners — but they have hosted preperformance receptions at the White House and sit with the award winners throughout the star-studded salutes. Every president has attended since 1978, although Jimmy Carter skipped it in 1979 because of the hostage crisis and George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were absent because of trips to Europe in 1989 and 1994. President Barack Obama arrived late in 2015. In those cases, the first ladies served as hosts.

Trump, who is expected to be in Argentina for the G-20 summit Nov. 30-Dec. 1, has twice called for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts, the federal agency that supports dance, theater, media and other artistic endeavors in cities across the country. Last year, the members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities collectively resigned in a letter that criticized Trump’s “hateful rhetoric.”

Peggy McGlonePeggy McGlone is a reporter for The Washington Post, covering arts in the Washington region. Before coming to The Post, she worked for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey as a features writer and beat reporter covering arts and education. Follow